In general terms an Electronic Data Management System (EDMS) is one that creates, stores and controls documents electronically and is generally used for internal documents. Popular EDMS apps including Zoho and Sharepoint although many people consider Sharepoint to be more of a file management system.

So not only can the definition of EDMS be somewhat up for debate but more importantly there’s the question of what the EDMS in question specifically does? Who is the target market and how does it help the target market?

DocBoss is specifically a project document control application that is designed for process equipment suppliers who submit documents externally to their customers at the end of projects. While many EDMS apps are custom designed, they often only help a company control documents that remain within the company.

When it comes to document control specifically, even a custom EDMS that was created to function as a document management system will most likely not suffice when you produce custom submittals and databooks for each customer because these are document control-specific activities. With a generic or even custom EDMS, you will probably require a great deal of manual work to get the job done.

DocBoss on the other hand specifically manages the submission of documents between companies ie. between you and your EPC customers or end users. If you deal with custom submittal templates for each customer and they provide you with custom cover sheets, transmittals and index report requests for example, DocBoss can help automate these tasks with ease.

With an average EDMS, you’re still going to be doing this work manually in all likelihood.